News archive

The new digital source collection has been licensed within the framework of the Specialised Information Service for Russian, East and Southeast European Studies with the support of the German Research Foundation. It pools documents on the activities of US intelligence services in connection with the Soviet Union, showing their successes and failures.

In the "Digital Collections", the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek now presents all music autographs by the German composer Heinrich Kaminski (1886 – 1946) held by the Department of Music. Kaminski, originally from Tiengen in the Black Forest area, lived in Heidelberg and Berlin after his years of studies, and later, as of 1914, in the small village of Ried in Upper Bavaria.

The "Bibliotheksmagazin" is published three times per year to report about the collections, activities and services of the state libraries in Berlin and Munich. The issue 1/17 of the journal will be presented in a new layout for the first time. The library journal can also be retrieved online.

The Department of Music of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek will be able to implement two important projects in the course of the coming three years thanks to the funding by the German Research Foundation: the start of cataloguing and digitization of the Schott archive and the cataloguing and digitization of over 200 valuable opera scores of the 18th century.

The most magnificent music manuscript of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, the large Renaissance choir book with penitential psalms by Orlando di Lasso (Mus.ms. A) is the object of a conference at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences. On the occasion of the conference, also a concert will take place in the church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Munich, on 23 February 2017, 19:30.

The Bayerische Staatsbibliothek is testing the discovery service Yewno as an additional topical search engine for digital full texts. The software works on the basis of artificial intelligence and machine learning. The Bayerische Staatsbibliothek is the first European institution to make this new search technology available to its users within the framework of a three-month pilot phase. Users can send their feedback to the project team by means of a response form. The service is available at: https://www.bsb-muenchen.de/en/search-and-service/searching-and-finding/yewno/

27 February 2017, 18:00
The Department of Eastern Europe of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek Munich, the Graduate School for East- and South-East European Studies and the association MIR cordially invite you to the screening of the documentary film "In search of a lost paradise" in the Werkstattkino in Fraunhoferstrasse 9 on 27 February 2017.

23 February 2017, 10:00 – 17:00
On 23 February 2017, the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek hosts a public congress on the topic of repositories "Storage – the final frontier" in cooperation with the Library Buildings and Equipment Section of IFLA.

Integrum Social Networks permits the systematic evaluation of the large amounts of data generated in social networks. The analysis tool (available in the Russian language version only) makes it possible to search social media (Twitter, Facebook, VKontakte, LiveJournal, etc.) for individual keywords and to break the results further down into individual days and weeks.

As of 1 February 2017, the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek offers access for one year to the e-books of the full collection of Cambridge University Press, comprising around 32,000 titles.

The latest present to the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek is of an extraordinary format and volume: a Tripitaka from Inner Mongolia, a 400-volume Buddhist canon in the Mongolian language. The Bayerische Staatsbibliothek thus holds the so far only copy of the new edition of the Mongolian Tripitaka in Germany.

More than 60 outstanding items from the music collection of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek are available now in the culture portal bavarikon in the form of high-resolution digital copies. Among them are manuscripts written in person by important composers such as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Joseph Haydn, Ludwig van Beethoven and Franz Schubert.

The Bayerische Staatsbibliothek is expanding its digital services again. Users from the fields of scholarship and research can now include all digital copies produced so far – thus around 1.2 million volumes with around 270 million book pages and 43 million images – in a similarity-based image search for similar motifs and images. The service is available at https://bildsuche.digitale-sammlungen.de and can also be used on mobile terminals.

The 17th of January 2017 marks the 500th anniversary of the Italian composer Antonio Scandello. From Bergamo, his place of birth, his musical career first took him to Trent in 1547, and two years later he followed the invitation by Elector Maurice of Saxony to the Saxon court music ensemble in Dresden, which he directed as of 1568 up to his death.

The Historisches Lexikon Bayerns (HLB, Historical Encyclopedia of Bavaria) has achieved a very positive result: In 2016 the online encyclopedia has reached a record with over one million accesses to the website. In comparison to the preceding year, this is an increase by around 40 percent. Also the visitor numbers are pleasing. Over 630,000 users from all over the world have used the comprehensive information services on Bavarian history available at www.historisches-lexikon-bayerns.de in 2016 – an unprecedented number. Most hits were recorded on the encyclopedia entry on Hitler's putsch on 8/9 November 1923, closely followed by an article on the topic of refugees and displaced persons.

The Bayerische Staatsbibliothek has newly acquired a poetry manuscript by the Persian poet Ahli Shirazi (1454 – 1535). Little is known about him: He lived a solitary life and was presumably poor. In contrast, the present collection of poems is crafted luxuriously.

Karl-Georg Pfändtner, born in Bamberg in 1965, senior researcher in the Department of Manuscripts and Rare Books of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek in Munich, has been appointed Director of the State and City Library of Augsburg as of 1 January 2017. He is the successor of Reinhard Laube, who had occupied this position since 2013.

In the form of a special series, the editorial office of the Literaturportal Bayern introduces literary gems from the archive of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek: selected highlights which are related to Bavaria with regard to their origin, tradition and effect and have entered the annals of literature.

The Bayerische Staatsbibliothek has returned three books from the property of the Jewish art historian August Liebmann Mayer (1885 – 1944) to his daughter Angelika Liebmann. Mayer was arrested in 1944, deported to Auschwitz and murdered there. A major part of his library is considered lost.

The Deutsche Biographie (German Biography), a service jointly offered by the Historical Commission at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities and the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, posted the number of one million visitors for the first time in 2016.

bavarikon, the Internet portal on the art, culture and regional studies of Bavaria, presents its services also on Facebook as of now. The aim of the new Facebook channel is to inform about the plethora of contents and scope of bavarikon and to raise the awareness of different user groups of the multi-faceted service.

Cabinet presentation of the series "Musical treasures"
15 November 2016 – 31 March 2017
On 18 June 1816, Gioachino Rossini's opera buffa "L'italiana in Algeri" was staged at the Munich court theatre. This was not only the premiere of a Rossini opera in Munich, but in Germany on the whole. Rossini's music took Munich by storm.

Cabinet presentation from the series "kOSTproben" (samples from the East)
Extended until 17 February 2017
The kOSTprobe exhibition shows documents on the entry of Romania into the First World War in 1916. A display of newspaper articles complements the kOSTprobe with 15 elaborately reproduced panels giving an overview of the reception of events and the war correspondence in the contemporary international press.

First editions are connected to that thrilling moment in which the author detaches himself from his work to bring it to the public for the first time. The Literature Portal Bavaria now enables you to rediscover first editions with a connection to Bavaria and its history.

23 November → 14:00 – 17:30
The event will first introduce the planning and preparations for the specialised information services "historical studies" and "Russian, East and Southeast European studies". Subsequently, the researcher's demands on the currently planned services will be discussed.

Along with the relaunch of the website of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, there are also new e-tutorials available again: Short video clips familiarize you with the library and give you detailed information about loaning books or about the functions of the OPACplus.

The Bayerische Staatsbibliothek has been given a Burmese adorned manuscript from the 19th century as a present from a private holder. Palm leaves as writing material and the magnificent design indicate the Buddhist content of the manuscript.

"It is not sufficient for a library to be merely a feast for the eyes, it has to function, too." (Dr. Gustav Hofmann, Director General from 1948 to 1966): On 27 October 1966, the annex of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek was inaugurated. In the course of the years, the interior of the glass building has been adapted to current requirements again and again.

During the period from 2017 to 2021, the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek will be supported by the Carl Friedrich von Siemens Foundation with EUR 180,000 annually for the acquisition of printed books from the field of philosophy.

The Bayerische Staatsbibliothek has launched its new website on 17 October 2016. The website has been set up newly in its entirety, regarding both its design and the technical platform. The contents have been written newly or revised for the most part. The new website is intended to present all aspects of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek and, as a user-centred platform, to make all services available in a well-structured manner.